The Affordable Care Act (ACA) includes numerous reforms to the individual and group health insurance markets, expands Medicaid to more low-income adults, and creates health insurance Marketplaces where subsidies are available to lower the cost of coverage. These changes are designed to increase access to affordable health coverage. This brief examines these coverage provisions, provides an update on how they have been implemented, and assesses their impact.
FRAMEWORK OF THE ACA
Like previous attempts at health care reform, the ACA was structured to address the gaps and limitations of our public-private health insurance system. It builds on employer-based coverage, restructures the individual insurance market, and broadens access to and affordability of coverage by expanding Medicaid for the low-income population and extending tax subsidies for the purchase of private insurance to those with moderate incomes.

On Friday, March 6, 2014, the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Alliance for Health Reform host an ACA 101 briefing on the Affordable Care Act. The briefing takes place just as the second marketplace enrollment period ends, and the Supreme Court hears oral arguments in a case challenging the law’s subsidies (King v Burwell).

With the Supreme Court set to hear oral arguments in King v. Burwell on March 4, a new Policy Insight from the Kaiser Family Foundation’s Larry Levitt and Gary Claxton explores the policy implications for consumers and insurance markets if the Court were to side with the plaintiffs in the…

This issue brief examines the major questions raised by King v. Burwell, explains the parties’ legal arguments, and considers the potential effects of a Supreme Court decision about the availability of the Affordable Care Act’s premium subsidies in states with a Federally-run Marketplace.

This perspective addresses how insurance markets might respond if the US Supreme Court sides with the plaintiffs in the King v. Burwell case. The case challenges the legality of premium and cost-sharing subsidies for low- and middle-income people buying insurance in states where the federal government rather than the state is operating the marketplace under the Affordable Care Act (ACA).

In his latest column for The Wall Street Journal’s Think Tank, Drew Altman and guest co-author Dana Goldman examine hospital productivity gains, and what they may mean for hospitals’ ability to absorb spending reductions. All previous columns by Drew Altman are available online.

In this column for The Wall Street Journal’s Think Tank, Drew Altman and guest co-author Dana Goldman examine hospital productivity gains, and what they may mean for hospitals’ ability to absorb spending reductions.

In his latest column for The Wall Street Journal’s Think Tank, Drew Altman examines the variation among states beneath the national Affordable Care Act’s Marketplace enrollment numbers released by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. All previous columns by Drew Altman are available online.

In this column for The Wall Street Journal’s Think Tank, Drew Altman examines the variation among states beneath the national Affordable Care Act’s Marketplace enrollment numbers released by the Department of Health and Human Services.

To help reporters understand the national landscape and issues surrounding the Medicaid expansion, KFF holds a web briefing exclusively for journalists with Medicaid experts Laura Snyder and Robin Rudowitz.